Review of Landmine Goes Click (2015) by Isabel R — 23 Apr 2016

I came across this film by accident, and was curious by the attention that it received by the international community. It's not exactly what you expect, but a good attempt to jump out of the Horror genre that is Levan Bakhia's comfort zone.

The less you know about the plot the better, but the premise is simple. 3 Friends go out camping in the European Georgia valleys. One of them accidentally steps on a landmine, and is trapped into a standing position. Without giving away the plot, things unravel quickly and things keep going from bad to worse. The odds that this would happen are so remarkably slim, yet completely terrifying, that you can feel the tension that the poor kid goes through.

The main problem is the final act in the film, as it was completely off the mark, and didn't blend well with the rest of the movie. When a drama like this deals in some very dramatic moments of loss and tragedy, and then transitions into a completely different kind of thriller, it takes a powerful director to mix the two. I didn't feel any transition at all between these two styles.. It was more of a quick cut between these two styles and it was so quick that you're stuck wondering how the protagonist got from point A to point B. Almost like two different films were mashed together near the end.

Secondly, the main actor has a completely unbelievable personality transition take place at the end, as he becomes more of an evil little psychopath rather than a victim. I couldn't believe that this boy was as immoral as he was trying to portray. I think it was obvious to the actor that he wasn't doing a very good job of it as well. The effort was there, but it also felt like an effort to watch him portray a completely different character with the same name.

A great start to the film... but loses it in the final act. Overall, worth an evening of your time, but could have be much better.

2/5.